Video: Pro lighting at hardware store prices

Everyone knows that good lighting is important when shooting video, but professional video lights can be prohibitively expensive. In this video, our friends over at ShareGrid demonstrate how to get professional looking results using inexpensive equipment available at any hardware store, including work lights, poster board and even a shower curtain.

Comments

Wow guys, nice video, but i need that gear to look professional in front of my clients. You cannot go to a photosession and look like a newbie with a flash surounded with tape and spray. So, just the price is nice.

A stupid video. These cheap tricks can be found in any old dusty photo magazine from the 1970s. They are set up will give you 1 look only, flat and boring. There are no hair lights or specular rim lights. So it's really a one-trick pony. Those work lights always fall apart and are almost impossible to get to stay where you need them. We deserve better content than this crap.

Here we go again. Reinventing the wheel. The first common diffusion was real shower curtains purchased from Sears. Myself, and other old-timers still refer to frost diffusion as "shower-curtain." I've been using Clearprint 1000H tracing paper since the 1970s. Hollywood DPs have used cotton sheets since about the late 1930s.

The first location lights were converted WW2 airfield landing lights. I used a lot of these PAR 64 on the MOW "Goldie and the Boxer." Matt Leonetti used them on "Weird Science," and many of his other feature films. I also use the inexpensive Lowel Tota-lites for bouncing and shooting through silks.

Only "rank amatuers " use C-stands for lights, pros use inexpensive light stands.

Pros also use a couple of "double nets" on the outside of windows. If you are a good store-teller no-one will notice the color temperature difference.

Is it common for professional photographers to call a person who just sits there "the talent?" Seems to me the "talent" in this equation are the engineers and technicians who are figuring out how to do the lighting, how to capture a decent image.

I think they used the stands because they happened to be in a studio with stands. It's certainly possible to do without them. For example, on more than a few occasions I've clamped a white piece of foam core to the back of a chair with a couple binder clips to use as a reflector. Chances are good most people have access to equipment like that.

It is a good point. Stands are the hard part, you need something to hold and point all that stuff accurately. If you have ever tried to do it without professional stands, not to mention the space required to set this all up .... you'd just rent a studio

Dale, I get that. However...1. They're demonstrating lighting on a budget. Everything about the lighting should be budget friendly. Because they just happen to be in a studio that happens to have high end stands, that doesn't cut it.2. Hanging this stuff off of chairs provides a lot less flexibility than using fancy stands. Accomplishing similar results without fancy stands could have proved much more difficult. As StevenE says, stands are the hard part.

Maybe you could produce your own video with foam and chairs. It would more helpful than this video to the budget minded.

Yes, stands are the one thing that aren't common domestic items. Light bulbs, shower curtains, boards, sheets, sure, but something to hang them off? Not so ubiquitous. Standard lamps aren't so common nowadays.I can't think what I'd use if I didn't have stands and tripods. Maybe a stepladder, but it's hardly convenient.

Fun to do DYI lighting - it's how I started. But the prices are misleading since there are no stands or grip equipment included. If time is money, it might be cheaper to buy pro stuff that is easy to hang then spend hours trying to figure how to rig your DYI lighting. Also tough to adjust the output on things like work lights. But if you have the time and lack the money, this can be a viable way to go for people just starting out.

Yeah it says VIDEO everywhere on this post, you can always go to amazon or ebay and get high CRI bulbs, same brand you might still have problems with color but this is a great solution when on a budget, i started with these, then now i own high CRI led panels, and still use these ones to light backgrounds with gels with leds/fluorescent lights there's very low risk of fire, they don't get as hot

Yes, you can do an excellent job with the most basic of tools, there are compromises of course like long shutter speeds, making sure your bulbs are all matching in colour, not setting fire to things, actually getting 3200 k bulbs is becoming hard . . . balancing the inside of a room with the exterior scene through a window is tough. Flash gear is now getting much cheaper though and the money difference between a speedlight kit with say three heads and a set of tungsten hardware store lights and stands is not as big as it used to be. Back when I did a lot of work with those simple tools I had this bag filled with partly used bulbs ( 30 bulbs?) that had to be sorted for colour before heading out.

For stills, even a single speedlight in a creative person's hands is remarkably flexible. This piece was specifically addressing video, where continuous light is required. And yes, mixed color light sources can be a challenge, no matter the price of the fixtures.

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